Udupi: A man was allegedly cheated of Rs 1.2 lakh after falling victim to an online franchise scam advertised on Instagram. The complainant stated that while browsing Instagram, he came across an advertisement offering a franchise of a company based in Gurugram, Haryana. After seeing the advertisement, he filled it out and submitted the form.Later, he received an application form from the company via email, which he filled out and sent back. Subsequently, two persons identifying themselves as Sanjay Mishra and Suresh Tripathi called the complainant from the company and asked him to pay agreement fees and licence fees. Accordingly, between March 4 and 5 last year, the complainant first transferred Rs 25,000 and later Rs 97,300, amounting to a total of Rs 1.2 lakh.
Despite this, the accused persons continued to call and demanded more money. At that point, the complainant became suspicious and realised that it was an online fraud. In this regard, a case was registered at Udupi Town police station under Section 318(4) (cheating) of the BNS and Section 66(D) of the IT Act.
